Useful Things
by Melis Ash
Summary: Eleanor is his perfect weapon.


At sea you learn fast to value useful things, prefer these rather than the nice looking ones. A good weapon that can save your life in battle, fresh food (no matter it it`s tasty or not), a clever crew (the reputation of these people is not so important: Dampier was not a saint and kicked out from Royal Navy, but he could plot a course with closed eyes). Rogers couldn`t say clearly when his marriage with Sarah stopped to work properly, but it was after that voyage (was it soon after returning or several months had passed before it became obvious?). Too much mutual debts and insults, much like a rotten ship that could drown in any moment. A senseless, useless thing. Even Sarah couldn`t deny it. At least they made the last attempt.  
Sarah is in Bristol, with children, and Rogers in Nassau, they haven`t lived together for three years, but when Jack Rackham asks him about wife (what the fuck is his business?), it still hurts.

Eleanor Guthrie, the Queen of Thieves, as London newspapers call her, is the most valuable addition to his crew since he began to make preparations to set sail to New Providence. She knows all Nassau secrets, every man and every street in town, she has ruled this place for eight years, before he even started thinking how to realize his Madagaskar plan there), and it's not so important what people talk about her: the crew rarely likes the captain. And she is one of the most beautiful women he's met, but somehow he realizes it (not as a casual fact, but seriously) late: when his ships are at anchor at New Providence coast and the pirates agree to accept pardons and English crown ruling. "Perfect weapon for conquering this place," he thinks staring at Eleanor`s fine features. He needs to thank Hornigold and Hume for that twist of fate.

Eleanor stands behind his chair, when Rogers receives visitors, and views all the important papers that he signs. He discusses with her any business related to the island. He's supposed to do it with the governor counsel, but half of these people are snobby English officials, and the rest of them he has known not for so long (somehow two months became a long time). And Rogers likes to watch Eleanor wrinkle her forehead when she thinks about something, and listen to her voice.  
And she plays a part of the lady of house during dinner in the governor mansion. A necessity in the absence of his wife. It works out worse than when Sara did that, but he doesn`t care.  
Eleanor`s hair is soft as silk and her lips are weather-beaten like those of the sailors (the sea has called him since his first sailing to Newfoundland coasts). Rogers doesn`t want to think whether they're acting reasonably or not. (He acts, to be honest.) Fortune has smiled at him, sending Eleanor Guthrie to London, and it may be her best gift for the last years.

The night after Vane`s arrest Eleanor can`t sleep. She sits in the chair and looks at the pattern at the wall. Awful day, awful night. His luck is never long.  
"A night without sleeping doesn`t make tomorrow easier," he reminds Eleanor. As long as she's sitting and looking at the wall, he can`t sleep either. They both need to sleep in order to make decisions with a clear head tomorrow, as far as it`s possible in this situation.  
Eleanor with this frozen face looks like a broken porcelain doll. It was a mistake, talking with her about Vane in such way, Rogers understands it too late. It only made things worse. Rational arguments are useless when ghosts come alive.  
Eleanor snickers strangely.  
"Do you think," she asks,"they all co-operate against us?"  
Usually Eleanor answers such questions herself. But, at least, she's speaking as before again. As the Eleanor he knows.  
"All?"  
"Flint, Teach…" she hesitates before saying the name with efforts,"Vane."  
"You know them, not me," Rogers saw Flint only briefly on the beach, and definitely wants to break Vane`s neck, but it seems he'd have to leave it to the hangman. Maybe he needed to aim better. As Eleanor said, Vane is a fanatic, no way to get information from him.  
Again that snicker.  
"True."  
Silence fills the room. In the uneven light of the candles Eleanor looks like a marble statue that can crack up any minute. Fucking Vane. When, in what moment did the thought of losing his perfect weapon begin to frighten him as much as pirates and Spain both?


End file.
